


Beneath the Mask

by monicawoe



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Established Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, Gags, Gen, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Other, Protective Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Restraints, canon-consistent head eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24462979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monicawoe/pseuds/monicawoe
Summary: Written for intoabar for the prompt: Eddie Brock goes into a bar and meets... Roman Sionis (Birds of Prey)!
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 18
Kudos: 91
Collections: A Ficathon Goes Into A Bar





	Beneath the Mask

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta Alyndra!

The bar wasn't the worst he'd been in, Eddie thought, not by a long shot, but it was definitely the most unpleasant. Gotham had a lot of places like this: glossy on the outside, foul on the inside. This bar was a perfect example. It was clean and shiny looking, stage-lights warm around the singer who sang pitch-perfect heartbreak, deep maroon and gold walls, and silver-trimmed tables. But something was off, here. Eddie knew what it was, or rather who it was. The man he'd set out to find tonight.

Roman Sionis—heir to the Janus Cosmetics empire and Gotham's most feared crime lord—ran this club. Eddie plastered on his most non-threatening smile as he surveyed the floor of the bar again. Roman had to be here. He always was, from what Eddie'd gathered. This was his club and his favorite place to be. He spent half his time amongst the patrons, and the other half, if accounts were to be believed, backstage torturing anyone who'd slighted him. That list had grown extensive lately, which is what had brought Eddie all the way here from San Francisco.

He'd considered reaching out for an interview, but that would've just made Roman suspicious. Maybe he'd use the guise of reporter now, gambling that Roman had never heard of his show. Why would he? To anyone in Gotham, Eddie was a nobody. Even in San Francisco he'd fallen off the radar some, which had made his other job much easier. Venom squirmed around Eddie's wrist, the tailored suit jacket the symbiote had formed for him glistening just a bit as they shifted. This place made them both uncomfortable but for different reasons. Venom saw a room full of food, and they were hungry. Eddie hushed them with a promise of dinner as soon as they were done. _We'll go for lo mein._

**_No. We had that yesterday._ **

_Fine. Ramen._

**_And chocolate ice cream._ **

_Ramen and chocolate ice cream. Deal._

They headed for a booth as far back in the main room as they could go. A corner spot, with a perfect view of the whole place. Eddie had barley sat down before a waitress came by and took his order. "Shirley Temple, extra cherry."

The singer switched to a more upbeat tune, her long hair glinting in the light of the stage. There was something sorrowful about her despite the happy tune, an undertone to her voice out of the range of human hearing, but perceptible to Venom.

"Extra cherries," the waitress said, appearing out of nowhere to set the drink in front of Eddie. He paid her cash with a healthy tip.

Venom waited for her to leave and lashed their tongue out through Eddie's mouth, winding it around all three maraschino cherries the waitress had given them and yanked them down their gullet.

"Those things are so gross," Eddie muttered, the syrupy aftertaste coating his mouth.

**_You are mistaken,_** Venom thought, momentarily satisfied ** _._**

Eddie's eyes landed on Roman then. He came in through a door in the back, two men flanking him who took position by the door in the most suspicious way possible. Eddie made a note of it. He'd have to get a look in the back room later.

Roman strode through the club, pausing in front of the stage to greet the patrons seated at the tables there with double finger guns. Classy. The singer pointedly ignored him, which told a whole ‘nother story. A woman further back in one of the booths waved at Roman and he walked towards her and then paused as he spotted Eddie. He straightened, pushed his glasses up and changed course heading directly to Eddie's booth.

"Haven't seen you here before," Roman said, looking Eddie up and down, evaluating him. It might have seemed flirtatious, if Eddie didn't already have a pretty good idea of who he was dealing with, particularly when he smiled as he leaned back in his seat, arms spread across the back of the seat like an invitation. But Roman's tinted glasses made his smile stand out that much more: shark-like. A show of teeth that might've been intimidating, if Eddie wasn't used to having Venom's mouthful of razors. As it was, Roman reminded him more of a televangelist. A wide smile meant to manipulate and sway, nothing real about it.

"Haven't been to Gotham before," Eddie admitted. "I'm from San Francisco."

"Really?" Roman chuckled. "Well then, what brings you to our fair city?"

"I'm a reporter," Eddie said, watching Roman carefully as his smile flickered downwards for a beat. He wasn't great at hiding his thoughts, this one.

"And what story are you...pursuing?" Roman leaned forwards, crossing his arms in front of him on the table. Fingers tapping the side of his biceps.

"I do bio pieces...on celebrities and entrepreneurs mostly," Eddie said, throwing Roman his own most disarming smile. "Gotham's got their fair share. So I thought, why not start with the heir to the Janus Cosmetics empire."

Roman's eyebrows darted up, almost comically. "You're starting with me? Not Bruce Wayne?"

"Pff," Eddie said. "Bruce is old news. People are sick of reading stories about him. But you?" Eddie said. "There hasn't been a real interview with you in years." He cocked his head. "Can't be because you value your privacy that much, or you wouldn't be here in your club every night. Maybe you just don't like reporters?"

"Heh," Roman laughed, dry as the desert. "Maybe."

"Or maybe you just haven't met the right kind of reporter."

"The last reporter that did a story on me insulted my creative vision," Roman said, fingers curling into a fist. Not just a fist, Eddie noted. A white-knuckled shaking fist, Roman's fingertips pressing so hard into the flesh of his palm that a drop of blood rolled down.

**_Hm._ **

_Yeah._

"I remember. Rolling Stone," Eddie said, twisting the knife. "Seemed to me that they just didn't _understand_ your vision. Maybe the world wasn't ready. That happens a lot with visionaries, don't you think?"

Roman was taken aback, unclenched his fingers. "That's what I kept telling everyone."

"What I want to know, is why not try again? Maybe they’re ready now. The face paint was a good idea."

Roman's cheeks flushed. Eddie'd done his research for a reason.

"It was," Roman said, and suddenly his viciousness was completely gone. He was a child seeking approval. "That's what I always said. Why limit ourselves to these stupid physical boundaries--lips, cheeks, eyelids--when the whole face can be a canvas!"

"Right," Eddie agreed earnestly. "I agree. But you know, I don't think that was ever the issue either."

"No?" Roman asked, looking genuinely confused. "Then what was? Why didn't anybody—"

"Well, if I had to guess, it wasn't the concept, it was the **_execution_** ," Eddie drew out the last word, letting Venom's voice give it extra weight.

Roman's brows furrowed. "You mean the ad campaign?"

"I mean the fact that the chemicals you used to improve the consistency left all the models in your ad campaign permanently disfigured. I mean that you then covered that up by paying them off, and in two cases, having them killed." Eddie narrowed his eyes, "Or did you do the killing yourself?"

Roman's lips curved downwards and his fingers clenched again.

"You seem like a pretty hands-on guy to me," Eddie added.

"Who'd you say you work for again?" Roman asked, lifting his hand and snapping his fingers. One of his cronies with a scarred face came from out of nowhere, glaring down at Eddie like a big cat eyeing a steak. Eddie gave him a wink.

"I'm self-employed," Eddie said, leaning back against the seat, much the way Roman had originally.

"Zsasz. Get him out of here," Roman told his crony.

"With pleasure," Zsasz said, moving towards Eddie's side of the table.

Venom stirred within Eddie.

**_Kill him?_ **

_No._

**_Why not?_ **

Zsasz grabbed Eddie roughly by the arm and yanked him to his feet, shoving at his back to get him to move and marched him across the floor of the bar, past the singer, to the door next to the stage.

_Because this is where we want to be._ Eddie told Venom as one of Roman's other cronies opened the door for them and let Eddie into the room he'd come here to find. If he'd still been a self-employed reporter, this would've been the part where he'd try to take photos and/or surreptitiously record the conversation, but his career had taken a different turn, and he already knew how this story was going to end.

Without preamble, Zsasz kicked Eddie in the gut, causing him to double over and shoved him to the ground. "Open wide," he said, shoving a gag into Eddie's mouth.

**_Eddie._ **

_Wait._

Roman came through the door a moment later, sunglasses off. "You want an interview huh?"

"Uh-hugh" Eddie grunted through the gag, tasting mildewy cotton.

"Here's you interview. You taking notes?" Roman asked as he headed towards a safe in the back.

Zsasz slapped Eddie hard in the face, then grabbed shackles laying on the ground and attached them to Eddie's wrists and ankles, chains rattling against the cement floor.

**_Eddie!_ **

_Just give it another minute, please._

Roman had taken something from the safe. A mask. He put it on and turned towards Eddie, now looking like a skeleton somebody had painted black. It was probably meant to be scary.

"Here's your story," Roman said. "I killed them myself, and I killed that shitty reporter who ruined my good name!" Roman was shouting now, voice only slightly dampened by his stupid mask.

"You g-nnuh k-ll -e -oo?" Eddie asked.

"What?" Roman asked, annoyed.

"Are you gonna kill him too?" Zsasz supplied helpfully.

"What do you think, genius?" Roman yelled, getting closer to Eddie.

"I -on't -ink -o," Eddie said, as Venom coiled inside of him.

"No?" Roman grabbed Eddie's chin and squeezed it hard.

What that was supposed to accomplish, Eddie didn't know, but he'd had enough. They both had.

"Mmph!" Eddie grunted.

"What?" Roman snapped and then tore down Eddie's gag, clearly fed up with his muffled noises. "You have some final words you need to share?"

"Yes," Eddie said, panting, "thank you."

"Well?" Roman said. "I don't have all day."

"I have a mask too," Eddie said.

"Yeah?" Roman giggled, hysterically. "Really? Do you?"

"Yeah. Wanna see?"

Roman turned to Zsasz who started laughing right along with him.

"Yeah! Yes I want to see! Show me your mask, reporter."

"Come closer," Eddie said. "Both of you."

Zsasz shrugged and took a step closer, and Roman leaned right down next to Eddie, so close their noses were practically touching.

“You don’t see it?” Eddie asked. “It’s right here. I’m wearing it. Right now.”

“I don’t have time for this idiot,” Roman said, straightening. “Zsasz, kill him.”

_Showtime._

Venom lashed out, gleeful in their motions, and grabbed Zsasz and Roman simultaneously, long tendrils wrapping around their waists, lifting them both off the ground as they formed fully around Eddie, shackles bursting open as they grew to their full size, towering over both men.

"What in the hell," Zsasz said, sounding, to his credit, more impressed than intimidated.

"Fuck!" Roman shouted. “Let me go!”

**"This is what we look like beneath our mask,"** Venom said, baring their teeth as they pulled Roman back in close.

"I'm going to kill you, you freak," Roman said, as Zsasz did his damnedest to wriggle free of their hold.

**"No, you're not,"** Venom said as they opened their jaws wide, and ate Roman's head, mask and all.

Zsasz put up a fight, trying nobly to shoot and then stab Venom for nearly a full minute before Venom lost patience and crushed his skull.

**"We do not like this city,"** Venom said, as they headed for the emergency exit.

_Yeah, I like San Francisco much better. But before we go, there's one more place we should check out._

**"What's that?"** Venom asked, retracting back inside Eddie.

"You ever hear of the Iceberg Lounge?"

**No.**

“There’s another villain here in Gotham, named the Penguin—”

**The small bird. They look delicious!**

“This one’s not a bird. He’s another criminal mastermind, apparently. The Iceberg Lounge is a hit with the whole rest of the crime syndicate here in Gotham, from what I understand.”

**Fine, we’ll go there. But Eddie?**

“Yeah?”

**You promised ramen and chocolate ice cream.**

“Right. First ramen and chocolate ice cream. Then dessert.”

**Author's Note:**

> The whole make-up thing is comics canon! I just had to incorporate it into this fic because wow, failed line of face-paint makeup as origin of villainy is not that common.


End file.
